Many Crystals Take Millions of Years to Form, Not These

Most of the big, stunning crystals that we find   on Earth are the end result of  millions of years of formation.

They grow deep in the Earth’s  crust in tectonic processes,   or on the Earth’s surface in sealed caves, in  both cases taking eons to form and be found.

But there’s one collectible crystal  that sometimes forms a lot faster.

In a windswept desert along the coast of Qatar,   gorgeous formations of desert rose are created  in a matter of decades, right beneath our feet.

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Desert rose crystals are common  sights in museum gift shops.

They’re named, somewhat uncreatively, for  their rose-like appearance and sandy texture.

What sets them apart from all of the shiny  faceted specimens on the shelf is that the   desert rose isn’t technically mineral  at all, but a combination of minerals.

It’s made from flattened crystals of evaporite  minerals, like gypsum or barite, that have grains   of quartz peppered through them like chocolate  chips in a muffin, only a lot less tasty.

Please don’t eat the desert rose. Now, normally, minerals combined together  like this would be classified as a rock,   but rocks don’t have a predetermined shape.

And although the shape of that rock  formation can vary, we always find   this combo as bundles of these flattened crystals.

So desert rose is really  neither a mineral nor a rock.

It’s its own unique thing, with  a unique formation process.